Growing Pains
by Danny'sGhostGirl
Summary: There was nothing Seto Kaiba feared, or so he thought. The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that perhaps there is something out there that can strike fear into his heart. He has no choice but to accept it, but how can he when he feels the one person he could always rely on is leaving him little by little?


**DGG: It seems I have stumbled back into the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom once more. And thus I have come back with a random oneshot! Once again revolving around the Kaiba brothers. So feel free to read, enjoy, and review!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! I simply write these stories purely for the fun of it. **

* * *

I feared when this day would come.

_"Mokuba, what do you think you're doing?"_

It was inevitable.

_"I wasn't doing anything!"_

It's hard for me to admit it.

_"First you sneak out only to get caught making out with her, and now I catch you in bed with her!"_

My little brother's growing up...

_"First off, we didn't do anything. We fell asleep. Big deal," Mokuba folded his arms haughtily across his chest while giving me the same challenging guise that I, myself usually gave to others._

_ "It is a big deal, Mokuba! You are only sixteen!" I shouted._

_ "So what? We still didn't do anything!"_

_ "I don't care!" Mokuba gave me a look at this. "I'm here to ensure something never happens!"_

_ "We were watching a movie! We fell asleep! You're making a mountain out of a molehill, Big Brother!"_

_ "It's already a mountain, Mokuba!"_

_ "We didn't do anything!" he emphasized every word._

_ "Not this time," I spoke darkly._

_ Mokuba gaped at me in offense._

_ "Do you expect that the next time I see her, I'll rip off her clothes and have my way with her?"_

_ I lowered my eyes to slits at this comment, inwardly cringing at his words._

_ "No."_

_ "Good, 'cause that's not what's going to happen!" Mokuba attempted to storm past me._

_ "Oh, you can count on it not happening," I grabbed his arm firmly and he stopped with an annoyed huff. "You can also count on how nothing is ever going to happen because you're not seeing her anymore."_

_ "What?" Mokuba's eyes widened as his jaw dropped in surprise._

_ "You heard me."_

_ He ripped his arm from my grasp._

_ "You can't do that!" his shock was replaced with rage._

_ I folded my arms across my chest, a cocky smirk playing on my lips._

_ "I don't know if you've heard this, but I'm Seto Kaiba. I can make anything happen."_

_ "No! You're not making that happen!" he objected._

_ "Try me," I challenged._

_ "No! You can't stop me from seeing her! We share a group of friends! I like hanging out with everybody, and she's usually around!"_

_ "Yeah? Well, I don't think the mutt is going to want you to see her anymore either, so I think it'll all work out in my favor in the end."_

_ "Oh, sure! The one time you agree with Joey on any subject!" Mokuba rolled his eyes._

_ I deepened my glare, exhaling through my nose._

_ "And speaking of Joey, I can't help but feel this wouldn't be as big a deal to you if the girl I liked was anyone other than Serenity!"_

_ "That's where you're wrong, Little Brother," I pointed my index finger at him authoritatively. "Your eye candy being Wheeler's sister is irrelevant at the moment. I could have walked in here this morning to find you snuggling up to any girl, Mokuba, and you would still be in the same amount of trouble."_

_ "Bullshit!" he cried as he slapped my hand away._

_ This garnered some surprise from me. I know that my face faltered slightly, but only slightly, and only for a moment. My brother had never cursed to my face before._

_ "What?" I snapped, my anger flaring back up tenfold._

_ "If I want to see Serenity, I will! I don't need your approval!" he shook his head._

_ "I beg to differ, Mokuba!"_

_ "Beg all you want. I'm dating her! End of story!"_

_ "No, Mokuba, this is far from over!"_

_ "No, we're done here," Mokuba stormed toward his bedroom door again before I grabbed him by the wrist once more. "Let go of me!" he struggled against my grip._

_ "You're not going anywhere. You're staying right here where I can keep an eye on you."_

_ "I don't need you to keep an eye on me, Seto! I'm not a little kid!" he shouted._

_ "You're still underage and live in my house, Mokuba! I'm still your legal guardian; hence you do what I say!"_

_ "What's the big deal, Seto? Why don't you trust me?" he frowned while furrowing his eyebrows._

_ "Because you're a teenage boy," I answered._

_ "So what? I've never given you any reason to not trust me before! Heaven forbid I make one little mistake!"_

_ "I don't want you to make a mistake, Mokuba, especially when the mistake turns out to be not so small in the end."_

_ "I'M NOT LIKE YOU!" Mokuba suddenly screamed, causing me to let go of his arm in surprise. We stared at each other for a moment, Mokuba panting in anger before speaking again. "I am not like you."_

_ "What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped._

_ "You know damn well what it means," he completely rounded on me. "You and your little not-girlfriend have been fuck buddies since you were what, fifteen? I'm not looking for someone to de-stress myself, Seto! I like Serenity, and she and I both respect ourselves and each other more than to just have a shit-ton of meaningless sex all the time! Is that what you're worried about, Big Brother? Because that's not what either I or Serenity wants!"_

_ "I'm trying to make it clear to you that having a girl sleep over here isn't acceptable!" I spoke through clenched teeth as I glared at him._

_ "Double standard! Your whore is here all the damn time, Seto!" he cried._

_ "Stop it, Mokuba!" I hissed._

_ "No! You didn't care when I said that I didn't like her being here, so why should I listen to you?"_

_ "Because I'm your brother and I know what's best for you! I'm in charge of taking care of you, and –"_

_ "Well, newsflash, Seto, I don't need you to take care of me! I don't need you breathing down my neck at every opportunity you get! I can take care of myself, and I can make my own rational decisions! I don't need your help, especially when you're being nothing more than a hypocrite! I'm not like you, Seto! Do you understand that? Stop getting so worked up about this all because you think I'm going to do the same thing you did," he lowered his eyes to slits, "and still do."_

_ "Mokuba," I started._

_ "No!" he held up his hands while slowly walking backward. "I'm done with this conversation."_

_ "I told you that you're staying here!" I cried._

_ "And I'm telling you that I don't care! I'm going after Serenity, got it?"_

_ "If you leave this house, you're not coming back," I spoke the words before I could stop myself._

_ Mokuba just looked at me nonplussed and shrugged._

_ "'Kay, bye," he snarled as he turned and stormed down the hall leaving me standing in his bedroom alone…_

That fight was nearly twelve hours ago, and my brother still isn't home. He's probably hanging out with Wheeler's sister, and possibly the rest of the Scooby gang. I'm hoping that his staying out for so long without contacting me isn't because of my bluff. He knows me well enough to know when I'm bluffing…I hope. He's angry at me, is all. Regardless, I sent Roland out to find him and bring him home.

I decided to stay home and do my work today, but I haven't gotten much done. I've accomplished little things here and there, but certainly nothing compared to the usual workload I get done. I've never been this distracted from my work before. I keep having the need to get up and pace around my home office. I eventually force myself to sit back down and do something; however, I've been staring at my computer screen now for over an hour without actually doing anything. What Mokuba said keeps resonating in my mind.

_I don't need you to take care of me!_

_ I'm not a little kid!_

I always feared when this day would come. It's a part of life that no one can escape, but I always assumed my little brother would need to rely on me in some way. I've always taken care of him. I clearly took him for granted. He's more than my brother, he's like my son. My purpose has always been to take care of Mokuba. If he doesn't need me, then what am I good for?

He always looked up to me, and I strove, and still strive, to give him everything he could possibly need. We've always been there for each other. It's hard for me to think that soon he may no longer need me at all. He's no longer a little kid; he's sixteen. He's nearly as tall as I am now, he's long since cut his long hair, and he's lost all of his baby fat. He's no longer the goofy little kid who has nothing better to do than to follow me around and idolize me all day. He's nearly an adult now who's interested in the opposite sex.

He's right though. He doesn't really need me to take care of him anymore. He's grown up a lot over the past few years, and even when he was younger he was quite capable of handling a situation on his own. Gone are the days when a thunderstorm or a nightmare could send my little brother running to my room for safety. Gone are the days when I was the only one he could depend on. Gone are the days he tailed me like he was my shadow.

Not everything's changed, however, which quells my nerves slightly. He still waits up for me until I get home sometimes. He still pesters me about how I spend too much time working. He still occasionally hangs out with me at Kaiba Corp while he does his homework specifically so that when he's done he can annoy me for his own amusement. That last one doesn't happen as much anymore since he's taken a shine to hanging out with his friends more than me, but even though it irritates me when he starts badgering me, I secretly welcome it. It means he's there, after all.

The fact that Mokuba isn't around as much tears me apart inside. Maybe this is how he felt when he was younger while I was at work for most of the evening while he was stuck at home. Maybe this is how he still feels when he waits up for me at night. So maybe I deserve to feel this way. Like he's abandoning me. I know he isn't. He's just getting older. He has different interests and he has new interests. But I can't shake the feeling that he's growing apart from me.

We've had spats before, but never like this. I used to think our previous heated arguments were bad enough, but they weren't as explosive as this one. I certainly never yelled at him that he wasn't welcome back before. He's never said those types of things to me before either, and it only reminds me further of how much he's grown up.

I honestly never really thought about what I would do if he stopped needing me. Oddly enough, Mokuba's always been my rock. He's always been the reason I've kept going. His optimism and his smile always seemed to give me the strength I needed to persist. I'm so thankful that he's been in my life because I honestly don't know what I would have done had he never existed. My little brother means the world to me. I used to be his entire world, but his world expanded, and now I'm only a piece of it.

I would by lying to myself if I said that didn't hurt me.

I don't want my little brother to leave me behind. He'll never know just how much he truly means to me. I always wanted to be a big brother, and once he was born I felt like my purpose was to always protect him. I was supposed to guide him and take care of him, and that's just the way it would always be. But there was always a voice nagging me. A voice that I tried my best to ignore and hope would go away although I knew it wouldn't because it was right. I knew in the back of my mind that one day Mokuba wouldn't need me anymore. He's a teenager now, and he's far from helpless. I raised him to be that way…

The more I think about it, the more I feel like I'm going to become lower and lower on his totem pole of importance. I was always at the top; his friends came second. He's slowly starting to spend more time with them than me, so I feel like I've been shoved down a peg. Next his girlfriend will be at the top, then his wife one day. When he eventually has kids, they'll be at the top as well while I'm shoved all the way to the bottom. He won't need me. He'll have his own little family to take care of, and I'll be thrown out like yesterday's garbage.

But I need him. I need him by my side. He helps keep me going. He helps keep me human. But I can't keep him all to myself. I know I can't. It's one of the few things I can't do, and that eats me up inside. There's nothing I can't afford. There's nothing I can't have…except for my baby brother's undying loyalty. It just kills me to know I'm not nearly as important to him as I used to be.

I would never admit it aloud, but this terrifies me. My little brother is leaving me. The one person I completely trust, and he's slowly disappearing from my life. He's starting to forge his own path in life. He's not afraid to step away from me, he's level-headed and determined, and he's not afraid to face the world head-on. He could walk out the door and never look back if he wanted to, which, in all honesty, is something I fear actually happened today. He doesn't absolutely need me anymore. That's not how it used to be. Mokuba is now a self-confident, self-assured go-getter who's not afraid to stand up to me or defy me. He's like a slightly younger, more open version of me, and that's frightening in and of itself. My brother is supposed to be young and naïve, but that's just not how he is anymore.

I hate that my brother is growing up. I hate that he wants to spend time with his friends rather than with me. I hate that he always seems to be too busy for me. I hate that he's about to have his first girlfriend. I hate that I can't turn back time.

I love my brother.

I wish I could go back in time to when he was ten-years-old again.

He needed me then.

He doesn't now. Not like he used to, at least.

I know I'm being selfish, but I can't help it. I know it's something I'm going to have to deal with; I'm just afraid of him completely leaving me. Of course, I don't think I'll ever truly "lose" him. We've been through so much, and we have a strong bond, but his getting older still hurts. My little brother's not so little anymore. He's interested in girls, he's driving, and I'm just his annoying parental figure in the background.

I don't want to feel this way, but my life has been full of tragedies, so why not add another one to my list? I don't know what I would do if I lost my brother in any sense. Everything used to be so simple. He used to always do as I said without question, but now he's found his own voice. Too bad he's using it against me.

Time's just going to keep marching forward, and I typically accept that. I thought I was prepared to handle anything that was thrown at me, but this completely blindsided me. My little brother's inevitable venture into adulthood is in full-swing, but I would give anything at all for him to somehow go back to being my ever-loyal baby brother again. My innocent, short baby brother with a naïve sense about the world, long hair, and baby fat. He's not supposed to grow up. He's not supposed to have girls spend the night. In fact, he's not supposed to notice them at all.

I feared when this day would come.

I fear I can't truly handle this.

My little brother is growing up and fast. I just don't want him to leave me behind…


End file.
